Friday, 15 March 2013

The secret sewing was finished in good time and arrived to its new home on the right day to surprise a friend with a special birthday. Well done to both the English and Swedish postal services. Did you guess what I was making? Does this make it a bit easier?

Add this to the mix. Now can you tell what it is? Remember the frame? Shown in a previous post.﻿

Ah! There it is. A house shaped bag. The pattern came from a french magazine but was a Spanish design. The magazine was called Quilt and Country. Cannot read French so had to wing it a bit, actually, a lot but it was worth it. Should you like to make one there is a kit and lots of other lovely house designs. Well worth a look and there is a translator button.

I am on a roll this week and have not one but two finishes. The wheelchair quilt is now a proper quilt, quilted very simply with large triangles and a few straight lines in the ditch. Being a dark colour you may/may not see the quilting but the orange binding finishes it off nicely. Job done. It will keep some brave old soldier warm and cosy. The backing is brushed cotton as it apparently stays on the knees better.

The second finish in a few days no less is this little cushion.﻿ It has been languishing in a pile of UFO's for I don't know how long and this morning I decided that today was the day it would be finished. It is 10" and I am pleased with it. I wonder sometimes why it takes me so long to finish things. For the back of the cushion I used a piece of remnant from my curtains. I love these very soft and pretty greens and it has a few birds too.

On Wednesday we celebrated Wendy's birthday with our usual opening of presents and Kate's husband David has taken on the role of baking the birthday cake. We had carrot cake. Kate made Wendy a lovely note book holder from fabrics that were in a jar of scraps from a previous sale day at one of our quilt shows. It goes to show that inspiration will hit at some point for just the right project and it looks very pretty. Our super organised Rosemary is in Australia and left her present before she went away and the pretty pink card is one of Rosemary's makes.﻿

That is me done for the week. I may have to go and lie down in a darkened room now after all this activity.

Thursday, 7 March 2013

There has been a little bit of secret sewing going at Stitcherydo HQ so I cannot show you yet what it is. Here is just a little glimpse. Can you tell what it is yet?

Inspiration came from some lovely fabrics from Dotty Dolly and I have completed the first block for the Noughts and Crosses quilt by Trish Harper. If you fancy making one yourself then the pattern can be obtained from Lizzie at Broderie blog.

My mum taught me to crochet when I was a teenager and recently I have taken it up again. The skills are a bit rusty but with the help of YouTube and Pinterest it is coming along nicely. I bought a lovely crochet hook by Rico and it is a delight to use. Being a bit chunkier on the handle it fits better and doesn't make my hand so sore. The yarn is Rico Baby Essentials.

Wandering around my garden was this beautiful pheasant. I have posted before of the wildlife that wander into my garden. I live less than a mile from the town centre and this creature belongs in the countryside so I wonder where he appeared from. He strutted around for a while and then disappeared around the back of the summer house hotly followed by the tabby Tom from over the road. Hope it survived.

I hope you will listen to this YouTube clip that appeared on my Facebook page. A star is in the making and I cried. I like something to move me to tears. It is 4 minutes long but please watch it to the end. Father and daughter Jorge and Alexa Narvaez. Dad has the most gorgeous voice.